A Celebrant is a person who is trained and certified to meet the needs of families during their time of loss. Martin was trained in Ottawa in August of 2008 by the In-Sight Institute of Oklahoma.
1.A Celebrant offers an alternative to a service provided by a clergy person for those families who are not affiliated with a church or who do not wish to have a traditional funeral service
2. A Celebrant has been specifically trained to design a service that is completely personal, incorporating those unique stories, songs and experiences that defined the loved one
3. A Celebrant will schedule a special family time for the family to share memories, anecdotes and special moments in the loved ones life. The essence of the service will be based upon the remembrances of the family.
4. A Celebrant has a library of resources available for readings, music, ceremonies and personal touches. The celebrant will consult with the family to help design a service that best reflects and memorialises the life of their loved one.
5. A Celebrant is bound by a code of ethics for complete confidentiality in all dealings with the family.
The training for Celebrants established by in-sight Institute seeks to provide the most comprehensive and sensitive training available for people wishing to develop this as a profession or to add to their current job description. It is important that the family knows that they are being served by someone who understands the process and is prepared to offer the very best funeral possible.
Ask your funeral director or contact IN-Site Books, Inc. 1-800-625-9262 or 1 -405-810-9501 www.insitebooks.com , or email orders&info@insitebooks.com.
The Celebrant fee is usually comparable to the fees charged by clergy for performing a funeral. This ranges widely across the country from $100 – $300. The Celebrant will spend approximately 10-13 hours in preparation for a service, as well as the expenses of training and maintaining a resource library. Funeral directors who also serve as Celebranmts are doing so outside their role as a funeral director and should be compensated for their expertise.
Connecting with a Celebrant in your area will provide you an invaluable resource to offer families who do not have or do not wish to utalize a clergy person. After a few Celebrant funerals, word will spread about the meaningful and caring funerals being conducted by your firm.
By using a Celebrant that has been certified by Insite Institute you are assured that this person has been trained in the following areas:
- Value of the funeral
- Family visits
- Listening skills
- Presentation skills
- Elements of funeral planning
- Code of ethics
Some funeral homes have funeral directors on staff, who were certified celebrants. Other funeral homes maintain a list of certified celebrants within their community or go to www.insightbooks.com Look under ‘Find a Celebrant’
Lives Retold
By: Martin J Carnahan
“The funeral celebrant wants to know
it all: the stories, the family lore, the quirks, that
measure a life.”
Ottawa ON—Margaret believes in heaven. She knows that’s where her husband is and her mother, too. But she’s not churchgoing, so she didn’t know a minister she could ask to perform a memorial service when her daughter died.
She wanted the service to be meaningful. She had things she wanted to be said. She just wasn’t sure if she could trust herself to get them out without crying. Read the rest of this entry »
When Joan’s mom passed away she knew exactly how she wanted her mom remembered. She wanted a celebration of her life.
She made sure her favourite songs were played at the funeral service and that her mom’s favourite flowers were present—roses.
The service was personalized and that’s a growing trend in North America.
Society is changing. People are looking for something that is more personalized to them I have been helping families plan more traditional services for 21 years.
Today funerals are less about mourning death than celebrating life.
It’s a brand new movement both in Canada and the USA. It has been the norm in Australia and New Zealand for some time he says. Each service is different. I meet with families for an hour or more to get a sense of the deceased person. We spend most of the time remembering stories about their loved one, the things they enjoyed.
He might include trophies or awards , photos and favourite objects. Some services have involved bagpipes, honour guards and old home videos. It’s a very rewarding work and at times it’s challenging.
Being able to help people grieve and heal is a gift
Handing out goodie bags of sour candy, jujubes and gum at a funeral may sound unconventional but not if the family wanted a unique celebration of their sweet-toothed loved one.
While “Amazing Grace” might be a standard hymn at many funerals I have heard “A tear in My Beer” or “Light My Fire” played at services.
As a funeral celebrant it’s my job to personalize a funeral farewell by incorporating aspects of the person’s life into the service.
I try to make every ceremony unique in some way and I do that by trying to identify a ritual that is symbolic for the family. Often
I am referred to a grieving family by staff at the funeral homes.
Funeral Celebrants are becoming more popular in North America among people who describe themselves as spiritual but not religious and may not know a minister to conduct the service.
I meet with a family for about two hours to learn about their loved one and to personalize the tribute. .Before one service I met with three adult children and a husband of a deceased woman who enjoyed taking her kids to the beach when they were growing up. With help the children decided to symbolize their mother’s love of the beach by including a ritual that involved four large glass vases, sand in four different colours and four small buckets and shovels.
At the service everyone was invited to put sand into each of four vases. “I watched as 150 people stood in line for as long as 45 minutes.”
The result was 150 layers of alternating coloured sand in each container.
This was a visual memory for everyone. Each of the vessels would be taken home by a family member and it would illustrate to them that particular day and the support that was around them. It was a very special memory for the family and for me too.
In another service the husband of a woman who died of cancer in her early 30’s collected stones from an area near to the couples’ home to symbolize his wife’s love of climbing and hiking. Everyone at the funeral was given a stone and asked to return it to the forest in their own time.
At another ceremony the family of a grandmother with a passion for licorice twists and jujubes gave away the treats to all who attended.
And then there was the sweet-toothed trucker who loved candy so much that his family gave out goodie bags at his funeral.
Even at services involving tragic deaths of children, suicides, and drug overdoses people want to celebrate their loved ones.
The In-Sight Institute began certifying funeral celebrants about 10 years ago when Doug Manning, a former Baptist minister, saw the role carried out in Australia and New Zealand.
Manning said funerals had become cookie cutter affairs where everything was there and they just changed the name and went on to the next one.
The Institute has trained 1200 celebrants in North America.
While religion isn’t the focus for many people who have funeral celebrants the service s are rarely totally secular because most people aren’t anti-God. They just prefer something more personal.
To learn more or to contact a celebrant in your area phone your local funeral home or google “funeral celebrant”.
Press Release
For More Information Contact: Martin Carnahan (613) 823-8194
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Local Man Completes Celebrant Training
Ottawa On(28/08/2008) Martin Carnahan, local minister and Nepean resident recently attended a three day workshop to become a Certified Funeral Celebrant. The training was held at the Sheraton Hotel in Ottawa.
The Funeral Celebrants Training is a new approach to personalized funerals presented by Doug Manning and Glenda Stansbury of the In-Sight Institute. By the end of July 2008 they had trained 1200 Funeral Celebrants in 55 locations in Canada and the United States
A Funeral Celebrant is a lay person, clergy person or funeral director who has been trained in the specific area of conducting funerals for families who do not wish to have a clergy person or a religious based funeral experience.
Our society has become much more mobile and much less tied to the church. Many people are not affiliated with a religion or theology and do not have a clergy person on whom to call in times of death. Also many people are not comfortable with a traditional funeral ceremony. Therefore, the need for Funeral Celebrants has become more apparent.
This practice is used widely in New Zealand and Australia. In some cases, Civil Celebrants, who are licensed by the government in those countries, perform 50% of the funerals and weddings. Doug Manning, one of the leading speakers and authors in the area of bereavement, toured these countries several years ago and brought back the idea that people in Canada and the US needed this option.
The 3-day training included people from all over the country who will either offer these services to families who come to their funeral homes or individuals who will contract with firms to offer these services to the community. Celebrants offer personalized funeral services, tributes, memorial services, grave side memorials. They meet with the family to help them design a service that reflects the life and attributes of their loved one.
Martin Carnahan plans to publicize the fact that this option is available for families and he will offer these types of funeral services.
About
I have been a certified Celebrant since 2007
If I can assist you in anyway, please contact your local funeral home and request my assistance.
If you wish a service outside of the funeral home, please contact me personally..
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